Plenty of people have pointed out how, in the early part of this year, we could never have expected to be in the current position.
And it’s a fair to say that last Friday we could not have expected to be in the position we found ourselves in by Monday morning.
Saturday’s events won’t have done much to offer a way forward.
A thread on Twitter by Times columnist Matt Chorley on Saturday explained some of the remarkable chaos and discord behind the scenes at the Prime Minister’s announcement.
It’s hard to imagine how those planning major schemes can have any certainty over their ability to complete them – or what the market will be like when they do.
The Blade in Reading, a much-praised design that won a lot of public support, was completed at pretty much the worst possible time during the last recession, something the developer could not have envisaged.
Despite the praise and the fact it has become an icon of the town as familiar as the Forbury Lion, occupiers took years to be persuaded to move in.
This time developers know the recession is coming and can make their calculations. But who would press the button on an ambitious scheme when those leading the country are so prone to wild changes of direction?
Schemes backed by public funds such as the new hospital at Basingstoke and various infrastructure projects would seem to have a head start when it comes to certainty.
But for ambitious, speculative schemes, only industrial seems a relatively safe bet.
Almost everything in the property industry relies on having a plan. It would surely help this and every other industry if the Government had one.
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